Gabriel Medina is the 2014 ASP World Champion

At one point, a group of Brazilians all wearing yellow t-shirts with ‘Vai Medina’, yelling exactly that from the beach outside the RC house, wouldn’t continue up towards Pipe until Gabriel came out on the balcony.

Which is unsurprising – the Rip Curl house has had a chef cooking dinner every single night, bringing in fresh produce and crafting up huge meals. Mick, Backdoor fabulous.

The sand has been a go-to conversation starter on the North Shore if you ran into someone but had nothing of value to say. “Man, I’ve never seen so much sand on the reef. ” This was probably the most sand the Pipe Masters has ever seen.

He surfed and looked as though it was just any other heat, high five-ing fans afterwards and enjoying the moment. He then clocked a 7. 00 and 8. 67 against Filipe Toledo and Josh Kerr in round four, skipping round five and bouncing straight into the quarters.

There’s been some severe head noise for Gabs to deal with since Pipe started.

Pipe has always been close to the beach but this year you could throw a stone and hit a surfer in the barrel.

A surfer most would dismiss at Pipe went out and ruled his countryman, until Gabs stepped up again and got two high-scoring waves in a matter of seconds.